Paweł Sakowicz is a choreographer and dancer. He graduated from the University of Warsaw with a degree in political studies and holds an MA in performance and choreography from the London Contemporary Dance School. He has collaborated with Ramona Nagabczyńska, Marta Ziółek, Iza Szostak, Alex Baczyński-Jenkins, Rebecca Lazier, Isabelle Schad, Peter Pleyer, Joanna Leśnierowska, Magda Szpecht, Łukasz Twarkowski, Michał Borczuch, and Anna Smolar.
In 2013, Paweł began working on a solo inspired by Thomas Bernhard’s language: Bernhard premiered at the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute in Warsaw in June 2014. The piece was selected to be presented at the Polish Dance Platform 2014. In 2015, Sakowicz was an artist-in-residence at the Art Stations Foundation by Grażyna Kulczyk (as part of the Solo Project Plus 2015). In December 2015, he presented TOTAL: a piece that problematizes the issues of virtuosity and examines speculation as a potential choreographic tool. The piece was selected to be presented at the Polish Dance Platform 2017. In 2017, he was developing another solo work: Jumpcore was premiered in December 2017 in Lublin (MAAT Festival) and Warsaw (Studio Theatre). As the first choreographic work in Polish history, Jumpcore was purchased to the collection of the state art gallery (Zachęta – National Gallery of Art). The piece was selected to be presented at the Polish Dance Platform 2019. In autumn 2018, Paweł and Anna Smolar collaborated on Thriller: a theatre/dance piece for the young audience. In January 2019, Paweł premiered Masakra: his first group piece focusing on the latin ballroom dance and issues of cultural appropriation. Both Thriller and Masakra are in the repertoire of Nowy Teatr in Warsaw. In autumn 2020, he created a new piece - Drama - that was commissioned by the Body/Mind Festival in Warsaw. In 2021, in collaboration with Anka Herbut and Justyna Stasiowska, Paweł worked on VORTEX: a quadrophonic sound installation dealing with the non-linear approach to the dance history. In 2022, National Museum in Warsaw comissioned a new dance performance from Paweł: a solo work Amando premiered in April.
Sakowicz’s artistic development was supported by a scholarship awarded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland, a residency programme run by the Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw, by the Alternative Dance Academy of the Art Stations Foundation by Grażyna Kulczyk, by the Centre National de la Danse in Paris, and 2017 danceWEB scholarship. He collaborated as choreographer with Nowy Teatr in Warsaw, Studio Theatre in Warsaw, TR Warszawa, Schauspiel Hannover, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Lithuanian National Drama Theatre in Vilnius, Dailes Teatris in Riga, and Münchner Kammerspiele. Paweł was the curator of two editions of the dance education program Poruszyciele#Wałbrzych. He was awarded for the choreography („Schubert” directed by Magda Szpecht) at the National Competition for the Polish Contemporary Play Staging. He was nominated for the 2016 Polityka Passport Award. Currently, he is a guest teacher at the Institute of Polish Culture, University of Warsaw.
